5 children in the UAE left with maids for 10 months

Mom will be prosecuted for negligence and could be stripped off their custody

By

Staff

PublishedSunday, August 26, 2012

Dubai Police have arrested an Emirati mother on charges of negligence after she left her five children with two housemaids for nearly 10 months, during which they were locked up in their room, according to press reports.

The unnamed divorced woman, who had won custody of her children aged between two-and-a-half and 10-years old, was making secret visits to the house where they were kept so they would not see her, the reports said.

Her actions prompted the police to take the kids away from her and hand them to their father and his wife after he made a statement pledging to look after them.

“We are following them up almost daily,” said Colonel Mohammed Al Murr, Director, Human Rights Department, Dubai.

“The woman has been arrested and questioned. She confessed to being negligent on the grounds she could not look after them on her own due to financial problems. But, her reasons were not convincing at all because she could have requested help from the competent authorities.”

He told the ‘Emarat Al Youm’ daily that the woman had also failed to register her children in school although most of them have reached age of schooling.

“The woman has been referred to the prosecutor after we found her behaviour dangerous to the children. The prosecutor will decide who will take custody of the children,” said Major Isaq Mohammed, Director, Women and Children Protection Division at the department.

“In case the prosecutor decides that the mother can keep her children if she shows positive response, then the department will help her to improve her conditions so she can look after them. Otherwise, the children will be kept with the party which appears to be more willing to take care of them.”